Hey Everyone!!!

We are here in Beijing at the Olympic Village and have had much to tell the few days we have been here.  We have already had a few practices and are getting familiarized with this gigantic village with so many things to do and people to meet!  

But the highlights thus far have come in the last 24 hours. Last night I was able to attend my very first opening ceremonies and it did not disappoint!!  

First of all, our team looked so good all dressed up in our Ralph Lauren blazer and khaki's, topped off with a cute newsboy cap!  As we waited our turn to march through the tunnel into the stadium, we mingled with athletes from other countries and met many from our own as well.  The anticipation grew strong however as soon as we neared the end of the tunnel.

All of a sudden, our whole US delegation of athletes and coaches began chanting "USA! USA!" and you could feel the pride pumping through the goose bumps that had risen on my arms.  As we got to the entrance of the stadium we heard over the loud speaker, "United States of America" and 90,000 fans greeted us.  

What a feeling.  I have experienced the pride of being an Olympian, but to experience it with all those who are representing our country by your side, was a whole other level of excitement.  

Once inside, the best part was the lighting of the torch ...retired gymnast Li Ning ran across the top of the stadium while being suspended in the air, following him were the faces of all those who had run with the torch from all over the world.  It was absolutely spectacular ... with a giant ignition of fire to light the enormous torch at the top of the stadium.  

The whole night was so stimulating we thought it was going to be hard to get up for practice today. That is until an entourage of cars showed up at practice and President Bush came out ready to play.  He watched us hit, tried out some gloves, even asked me where I learned to hit.  

But the highlight of the day was when out very own Laura Berg pranked the president.  Now as many of you know, Bergie is THE prankster and is always up to something with a teammate or coach. However, she went above and beyond any prank she has ever done when President Bush said hello; she shook his hand, said "Hi there Mr. President" and gave him a good hard slap on the back.  

What she had done was caked her hand full of chalk and left a perfect five-fingered hand print on the back of his shirt.  Now of course, there is a million members of the media taking pictures and video and just snapping away at the president with a hand print across his back.  We finally had to tell him because everyone was laughing and really, you can only prank the president for so long right?  

The highlight of his visit then came when we did our traditional (what we do for every game and practice, from the movie Miracle) "Who do you play for?". President Bush took the place of Coach Candrea in the huddle threw his hand out with all of ours piled on top and shouted "Who do you play for?" where we loudly responded with "USA!!"  

Hard to get much more patriotic then that.  Pretty cool stuff in the last 24 hours ... and the real excitement has not even arrived yet!!  This is why I love the Olympics!!!  Can not wait to update you all more on what is still yet to come!!!  

TWO MORE DAYS!! Go USA!

Jessica